With Facebook taking down pages linked to Pakistani cyber actors spreading disinformation in India ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it’s becoming increasingly clear that India has been late in spotting the danger: if there is a Pakistani inter-services directorate as lethal as the Inter Services Intelligence, it is, undoubtedly, the Inter-Services Public Relations.

Cyber analysts like me have been this envisioning this scenario since a decade: how the South Asian flashpoint would manifest itself in the cyber-enabled information battlespace.

If there’s one inter-services directorate that is as lethal as the Inter-Services Intelligence, it’s the Inter-Services Public Relations. I know, I know — most of you would balk at my comparison. Hear me out:

This seems to have gone unnoticed, so I am placeholding it here. A small ideological disclaimer: I do not *hate* Pakistan like many right-wingers do. In fact, I long visiting Lahore some day and sample its street food. Nonetheless, this is an interesting public exposure to the tradecraft – if it could be called so – of an adversarial army.

In March this year, Amnesty International released a dossier (PDF) on the intimidation and spying of human rights activists based in Pakistan, allegedly by the country’s own army operatives. Apart from the usual scare tactics, the operatives also engaged in social engineering and cyber espionage. Android and Windows based malware were used for the purpose.

Cyber geo-strategy does not exist as a formal discipline in India. This blog takes a shot at it.

It also curates Pukhraj's publications on cybersecurity spanning a decade. His bylines have appeared in The Indian Express, The Tribune, Deccan Herald, The Print, Huffington Post, BW BusinessWorld, The Quint, and Seminar.

Pukhraj was also recognised as a social activist while running Abroo, a now-defunct sociopolitical initiative for the Dalits of Punjab.